We hope you enjoy reading this latest update – as we count down to 2016, we are pleased to confirm that we have...
A school crest!
Our first buildings!
Finalised our application for school registration!
And also...
Marina Haines’ presentation on YouTube
Advertising in Melbourne’s Child
We have a teacher!
We are delighted to announce that a teacher has been appointed for our very special inaugural class in 2016.
Roisin Watson was introduced at our last information seminar in July and enjoys a long history with the PARED model in Sydney. Her grandparents were founding parents of the first schools in Sydney, she herself is a graduate of Tangara School for Girls, and she returned there last year to teach a Foundation class. She has enthusiastically agreed to the challenge of moving to Melbourne to teach our very first class in its very first year – history in the making!
We hope to arrange another occasion for parents (and future students!) to meet Roisin (Miss Watson!) before our school opens.
We are grateful to PARED in Sydney for assisting us in the effort to find the right candidate for this important role – and to Tangara for relinquishing such a wonderful teacher!
We have a school crest!
We have been working with a designer to create an image that captures something of the spirit of our school and our aspirations for its students and community. We are proud to unveil the result.
Each element has been carefully chosen, and is rich with meaning.
The school’s motto, Veritas et Virtus, is placed in a prominent position, expressing the aspiration that each student seek the truth and grow in virtue each and every day.
The rose signifies the beauty of each child. A rose in bloom is magnificent – and every child is beautiful, unique and unrepeatable. Of course, anyone with a rose bush in their garden knows that its full beauty can only be achieved by careful pruning, and will be enhanced by loving attention. Further, along with its beauty comes its thorns, which for us represent the difficulties each person faces and the weaknesses he or she strives to overcome. In essence, the school aspires to help families to prune and nurture the character of their children, so that each child can grow to reach his or her true beauty, as a child of God and as an adult who contributes fully to society.
The Southern Cross is the national emblem of Australia, the constellation we can see any time of year in the southern hemisphere. Its cross shape signifies Christ, our light and guide. In Christian tradition, stars have long symbolised guidance and clear direction, and called to mind our Blessed Mother, for whom we hope our students will have a great love.
And finally, the Roman wreath signifies victory. We hope that students will aim to be victorious in all areas (study, sport, music etc), but most importantly that they aspire to be victorious in seeking and obtaining the fullness of truth and virtue.
We have our first buildings!
We have acquired four portable buildings, which will be our first classrooms, chapel and administration buildings. These temporary buildings are “stage 1” of our building plan and are currently being stored for us by the supplier until our planning and building permits are finalised. They are perfect for our purposes and almost brand new, having spent a year at a prestigious girls school in Camberwell. They are a great setting for creating wonderful memories of these pioneering first years of our college.
Application to government for school registration
We confirm that our application to register as an independent school was lodged at the end of May, and is currently being assessed by the Victorian Registration & Qualifications Authority (a branch of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development).
The application consisted of a vast number of policies, procedures, financial documents etc, which collectively outline the effective operation and good governance of our school. We have planned for everything – from corporate structure and governance to financial modelling, from student welfare policies & procedures to emergency evacuation plans, from school curriculum to facility and property maintenance... and many other things besides!
As you can imagine, this application has been an excellent opportunity for us to comprehensively plan out all the important aspects of the operation of our school, and has been two years in the making. Its submission was a major milestone for our steering committee.
Planning permit update
As previously mentioned, the local council is considering our application to obtain a planning permit, which will permit us to operate a school on our site. We recently lodged further details it had requested of us, including the full design and style of the buildings, facilities and landscaping. Our architect has produced some fabulous images of the layout and the design, which we look forward to presenting to you.
Marina Haines info session on YouTube
We enjoyed a great presentation from Marina Haines in July, during which she discussed many aspects of a new and small school, including curriculum, composite classes, and achieving academic excellence. The highlight was definitely her impromptu Spalding literacy class, which had us all volunteering to learn phonograms and rules in the hopes of earning a smartie or two...
If you missed this entertaining presentation, or would like to re-live it, please visit this YouTube link.
Advertising in Melbourne’s CHILD
We were all proud as punch to see an advertisement for our school appear in the MELBOURNE’S CHILD magazine – check it out here.
